Term Sheet -- Friday, September 1

HOT TAKES

Thank you for your thoughtful responses to yesterday’s question: What industry do you think blockchain will affect or disrupt that no one is talking about?

Below is a selection of answers I found most interesting. (Special shout out to the Term Sheet reader who said blockchain will be used “as a way to improve internal operations in criminal gangs.” I see you, but I’ll probably get fired if I include your full response.) ….Another person responded with “your mom.” Thank God it’s Friday.

SOCCER:

Bennett writes: I think Blockchain can have a huge impact on the sports agent-controlled transfer system across world soccer players. As the fees for the world’s biggest players like Neymar, Dembele, and Pogba / his agent! continue to rise at astronomical rates, teams have to work through power broker sports agents to agree on fees. (Note: these fees are not paid as salaries to players, they are paid as prices of players between 2 clubs.) Pogba moves to United for 89 million pounds, but he doesn’t see a scent of that – it all goes to Juventus.

With Blockchain aiming to make transactions across retail, finance, the real estate market and more more cost-efficient, timely and direct, these teams could eventually use this technology to remove the agent middleman and work together directly through club representatives.

ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS:

John writes: Traditionally, physicians have sent medical records via health information exchanges that can only send patient information to providers in a health information service provider directory, much like an instant messaging system. With blockchain comes the promise of an open and accessible common database for providers. Of course, there are concerns over data security and access that will have to be worked out. However, I don’t think we are far from an open-source, HIPAA and HITECH compliant electronic health record (EHR) built on a distributed ledger. Where that would leave the current for-profit EHR market is left to be determined.

IDENTITY:

Matthew writes: Blockchain technology could transform the identity management systems used to enable online transactions, putting a layer between people’s online business and their identities. This is no small problem. Hackers are targeting companies that store personal and financial information together – as evidenced by the 1,091 reported data breaches in 2016, a 40% increase from the year before. By combining blockchain technology with identity verification, a “digital ID” can be created for users to transact online without risking their personal or financial information.

CAR MAINTENANCE:

Dan writes: Since I’m currently getting my car serviced, an easy suggestion for blockchain usage is car maintenance/history. Basically every major part has a serial number and service records and such need to be validated. So instead of having a Carfax report, all you need is the blockchain to get the full history of the car and one can then easily validate all the serial numbers against what’s in the chain to show that nothing has been tampered with.

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Thank you guys, and let me know if you have additional thoughts.

PS: As a reminder, Term Sheet is off on Monday for the Labor Day holiday. Have a great weekend, and see you next week! If you really miss us over the weekend, tweet at me.

VENTURE DEALS

• Treebo Hotels, an India-based hotel operator, raised $34 million in Series C funding, according to TechCrunch. Ward Ferry Management and Karst Peak Capital led the round, and were joined by investors including SAIF Partners, Matrix Partners India and Bertelsmann India Investments.Read more.

• SuperAwesome, a London-based marketing platform for kids, raised $21 million in Series B funding. The investor was Mayfair Equity Partners.

• VideoAmp, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based integrated TV operating system for advertising, raised $21.4 million in Series B funding. Mediaocean led the round, and was joined by investors including RTL Group, GoAhead Ventures, StartUp Capital Ventures, Anthem Venture Partners, Wavemaker Partners and Simon Equity Partners.

• Strikingly, a San Francisco-based website development platform, raised $6 million in Series A funding, according to TechCrunch. Investors include CAS Holding, Infinity Venture Partners, Innovation Works, former Y Combinator partner Kevin Hale andTEEC.Read more.

OTHER DEALS

• Rathbone Brothers(LSE:RAT) has abandoned an attempt to merge with rival wealth manager Smith & Williamson after failing to agree to a deal that would have been “in the best interests” of its shareholders, according to Reuters. Read more.

IPOs

• Nightstar Therapeutics, a London-based gene therapy company focused on retinal diseases, filed for an IPO of ADSs raising up to $86 million. In 2016, the company posted loss of $13.6 million, and has yet to posts a revenue. The company is backed by Syncona Partners and New Enterprise Associates. Jefferies, Leerink Partners and BMO Capital Markets are leader underwriters in the deal. Terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.

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EXITS

• EXFO agreed to acquire a 33.1% state in Astellia (DB:4AS). The sellers were Isatis Capital and Astellia’s founders. The total amount of the deal will be 8.6 million euros ($10.3 million).

• GTCR agreed to buy a majority stake in Simpli.fi, a Fort Worth, Texas-based provider of a programmatic platform for local advertising. The sellers include Contour Venture Partners and Frontier Capital. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.